The Jefferson Image in the American Mind.

Abstract

Since its publication in 1960, The Jefferson Image in American Mind has become a classic of historical scholarship. In it Merrill D. Peterson charts Thomas Jefferson's influence upon American thought and imagination since his death in 1826. Peterson shows how public attitude toward Jefferson has always paralleled political climate of time; complexities of man, his thoughts, and his deeds being viewed only in fragments by later generations. He explains how ideas of Jefferson have been distorted, defended, pilloried, or used by virtually every leading politician, historian, and intellectual. Through most of our history, political parties have engaged in an ideological tug-of-war to see who would wear the mantle of Jefferson.

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